The White Thing, Or Something Like It
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on October 18th, 2010
Cryptomundo reader finalfirst submitted the following to Cryptomundo in response to an article I posted here in November 2006 entitled: The White Thing – An Albino Bigfoot?.
Happy Hollow’s story is absolutely true so people ought to stop trying to find excuses or reasons for it–and certainly they are not qualified to debunk it if they weren’t there. It just is what it is.
My sisters saw it (or something like it) when they were little and there is no reason they would have concocted such a tale. Just because we didn’t know what it was they saw doesn’t make it a lie or a figment of their imagination.
Anyway, I don’t know how they could have imagined the same thing at the same time, and frankly, they lack the creative spark to make up such an interesting tale and stick to it for 50 years.
They tell the same story except only one girl saw the red eyes. They agree though that as they were walking home from drawing water from a spring in the woods of Tuscaloosa County in Alabama, a large and white thing (they never referred to it as an animal of any type) with red eyes jumped from a tree (shaking the ground–remember, they were small girls) before it ran into the woods.
The year was 1960 give or take a year or two. I was not born.
They saw it because their dog started barking up a tree and they wondered what he was so agitated about. The dog was standing with his front legs on the tree and barking up. They didn’t see the thing until it jumped from the tree. They didn’t have time to run from it–all they could do was stand frozen and stare as it bounded into the woods with the dog giving chase. They dropped their buckets and watched it disappear.
They said that it was a quadruped. Then they started screaming and running home–scared out of their gourds of course. They got the story out and my father took his gun and tried to track it but could not find the thing. They never took that particular path to the spring again.
We are African-American, Baptist, poor, and from deep in the woods of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We don’t make stuff up, and that’s what they said happened.
They saw it clear as day and I was doing a little research on their story (and others because there are plenty) when I came across this post. It is the only other story that sounded like what my sisters saw that day.
I think they would have known the difference between a mountain lion (even if it was albino) and a thing with red eyes that was so big it shook the ground. Here’s what I find most interesting: seems that only dogs can detect this thing and flush it out. Had the dog not been with them, they would never have known what was in that tree.
So, the thing is real. What it is, well, that’s a different matter altogether.finalfirst
Did finalfirst’s sisters see the fabled White Thing of Happy Hollow?
On Happy Hollow Road, residents see the fabled White Thing year round. The fearsome creature is reportedly snow white and has a piercing scream, much like that of a woman in distress or a baby crying. He is reportedly as tall as a man with claws strong enough to scrape bark off trees, and as swift as the wind. White Thing sightings have been reported for at least 150 years.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
This is very interesting. My dad was one of 10 children, growing up in Buchanan, GA. He claimed that my uncle Hubert, Aunt Margaret, and Aunt Evelyn saw a creature they called the White Thing. This was in a place called Devils Kitchen, not too far from Buchanan proper. I was told that Uncle Hubert was driving a wagon back from town, after getting provisions, and my aunts, just girls at the time, were playing in the back. All of them heard a shrill, almost woman like scream, and were terrified. It was my aunts that noticed it first. The “White Thang” as they all called it, ran out of the woods, on 2 legs, and started chasing the wagon. The girls screamed with horror, and at this point, my uncle saw it. He started madly driving the mule, as apparently this thing was gaining on them. The chase persisted for about a 1/4 mile, until they made it home. My uncle was yelling, and apparently my grandpa came out with a shotgun and fired a few rounds, at which point the creature was frightened off.
I don’t normally give too much thought to this kind of thing, but I was repeatedly told the exact same story, over the years, by my dad, and all of those involved. They never saw the thing, again, but said for years to come, that they heard that same shrill scream, on occasion. Other families in the area also claimed to have similar encounters. One interesting final thought: It was believed that the thing live in a series of caves in the Devil’s Kitchen area. I was told that they were all afraid to enter the caves, as children. However, as adults, some brave souls ventured as far as the cave mouth, and it was littered with animal bones.
True or not, my family were a deeply Christian clan and were not prone to lying. Regardless of the truth of the matter, they believed what they said.
Take Care,
Shane Pointer
P.S. Any more word on the creature with the trident shaped tail from your recent Monster Quest appearance?
Shane – that’s a GREAT story. Pretty scary, too.
White bigfoots (bigfeet?) are nothing new, if you look at the old literature. They pop up occasionally, even in the hot South where white fur wouldn’t do an animal much good as concealment.
Apelike White Things are a rather common phenomena across the United States and United Kingdom.